MY BLOG IS BACK. I wrote about my full-time RV life, my time-travel excursions to other centuries, and whatever else came to hand, for a decade. Took 2017 off from blogging completely. OK, vacation's over. New crafts. New states colored in on the map. Retired. Sold the big motorhome. Traveling light and lean (for me ;) ) in a minivan. Still changing yards regularly. So hello - listen to some music, read some adventures.
~ Gypsy Jane

CDBaby Player

You can listen to some of my songs here:

Friday, February 28, 2014

I have been here 5 1/2 weeks. It's been cold, it's been almost hot, it's been wet, it's been beautifully sunny, and it's been fun. I look at my time here, at Stagger Lee Music Park in Georgia, where I'm camp host, as a vacation from my regular work, as a rest from my usually more frequent travel, as an opportunity to catch up with myself, and with my to-do list... and this year, with an old friend from work who now lives in a Coach House van and came to camp here and do a lot of the same things.

I think sitting in the sunshine doing nothing more productive than making Vitamin D is a perfectly good use of time. And actually, making Vitamin D is pretty darn important. But I was kind of feeling that I wasn't Getting Stuff Done. Mostly because I have so much more stuff I want and need to do. But I made a list.

Since I arrived her on 1/19, about 5 weeks ago, in addition to running the campground, I have

* Cleaned my entire house
* Organized under the couch
* Organized under the bedroom counter
* Rearranged it to accommodate a new fridge
* Removed carpet and Installed living room flooring
* Done several blog posts
* Visited with Ellen
* Finished knitting the slippers that were on the needles when I got here, and another pair
* Re-covered the ironing board
* Completed the mending. (Hand-sewing)
* Dumped - and filled twice.
* Replaced the water pump
* Finished at least two books
* Sorted and organized all the tool stuff, toolbox, step basket, bin in compartment.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

It's been a busy couple of days. I don't know if I mentioned that my RV fridge died last fall. They are expensive, so I have not replaced it. I've been using one of those Coleman dc coolers, and it's been serving as a coffee table. And then it decided to melt its plug. While full of food.
I decided to make a run to Walmart and buy a fridge. I'd been considering the little 2-door mini-fridge with a real freezer and had been looking online at the various brands, but hadn't made any decision - mostly because I wasn't sure how I'd fit it into the motorhome. So much for research. The brand at Walmart is Block and Decker. There were less expensive ones out on the net, but not many. I could lift it into the cart. Mine.
Now, you know there's no extra space in a motorhome, right? And you know from my "before" pictures that there's REALLY no extra space in mine! I had to make some really quickly before I could even bring the little fridge inside. Fortunately, I've done a lot of house cleaning since the "before" pictures were taken.
The only place it could possibly go is to the right of the door, a space occupied by this stand full of stuff that my printer sits on. I thought maybe I could turn it sideways but tried it and it just really didn't work. The stand has to go. I've only had it since 1993. It was my copier stand when I did medical billing. It was my keyboard stand when I lived in the travel trailer. It's held my overabundance of paperwork in this motorhome. I didn't really want to let it go, but I couldn't quite manage to bend the laws of physics.
I decided that the printer and all the office supply and paperwork stuff could find a new home on the worktable in the bedroom, and cleared the stand out.
I also decided that, with the good weather and the need to rearrange, the time had come to tear out the blue carpet and put the wood-grain interlocking mats down in the living room. They've been so nice to have in the kitchen.
I sorted, rearranged, and peeled up carpet. Oh my! Whenever the previous owners put down the carpet, they carpeted right over a heating vent! Go figure.
Under the carpet was dark blue indoor-outdoor carpet in good condition, so I figured I could live with that ok until I could get someone to cut the bolts off where the old chair had been.
So by bedtime Sunday night, the house was clean, the fridge was cold, the stuff to be relocated was in Lowes Food bags in the dinette, and I was a tired puppy.
Today the weather was again wonderful. I gathered up all my tools and hardware and what-not and sat out under the awning sorting stuff. I have quite an accumulation of screws, nuts, bolts, washers, and odd assorted fasteners. They are now all neatly sorted out, stored in compartments in the tool box or in the hardware shoebox, in baggies. No more digging through to see if there are more of a kind of item. Everything is findable.

And I found my KillAWatt! And the outdoor sending unit for the indoor outdoor thermometer.
After a nice dinner
and a beautiful sunset,
a friend came and cut the bolts off flush with the floor, and the rug replacement could proceed.

I got the mats last summer, from We Sell Mats, and did the kitchen floor then.
Having done the kitchen, the living room was even easier. A razor knife and a pair of scissors are all the tools needed for this project. Oh, and a screwdriver to remove and replace the edging strips by the stairs and the wiring protective cover against the wall.
Chaos reentered my just-cleaned-and-organized living room.
And chaos retreated.
I think it looks great!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The freedom to go and the freedom to stay are flip sides of the same coin. Sometimes staying put and catching up with yourself is the thing to do and the luxury you need. This was VERY true for me last winter and I was blessed with the opportunity to camp host at Stagger Lee Music Park. This winter I'm here again, and glad to be here. Especially considering the lovely weather the rest of the country has been having. We're having a lot - a lot! - of rain today, and the last major southern ice/snow event brought us a bit of icy rain, but we haven't had anything horrible here in southeast Georgia.

I spent the holidays in South Carolina, where we gathered at the home of Younger Daughter. That's where I did the kitchen counter from 2 posts ago. Since my parking place there is actually at her in-laws, 7 miles from her house, it was more convenient for everyone for me to mostly stay at her house. So I was regularly dropping in briefly to my motor home to pick up and drop off Stuff.

It got a little messy in there, so one project while here is Spring Cleaning. Of course, I have camp host duties, and a friend came to camp next door and we visit, so I'm not done yet but I can walk through the house now, and cook, and do stuff other than dig out the aisles.

There is nothing like taking pictures to show you where all the clutter is. If you're de-cluttering, when you think you're done, take pictures and you will be able to see what you missed. These are, of course, BEFORE pictures. I'm still decluttering. There will be AFTER pictures soon. I hope.

When I got here, I discovered that cleaning wasn't all I had to do. I opened my pantry and discovered that the little supports for the adjustable shelves had adjusted themselves out of usefulness. All my shelves were catty-wompus. So that was the first order of business. Everything out. Shelves replaced. Everything back in neater.

With all the cold weather this winter, I had drained my fresh water system in November before the first freeze. I hate repairing plumbing. Apparently I hadn't got it all out - something in the water pump decided to spray water all over my compartment when I filled the tank and checked it out on arrival here. Not amused. Inside, my coach is well designed, as coaches go, so I don't know what they were thinking when they put the water and sewer and electrical hookups all in the same bay. Electricity and water really don't get along.

I ordered a replacement pump from Amazon, waited 'til the next round of freezing weather ended, and installed it. What an awkward job! Even the RV tech who installed the last one hadn't been able to get all 4 bolts in. Too much tank-washing and surge protecting and sewer emptying Stuff in the way! (you can't see all that - these pictures are just ones I took close up of the old pump so I'd know how the wires hooked up in case I forgot.)

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I also have a Van, which I take to Rendezvous and in which I also like to go AdVANturing in the woods. Much as I love this Holiday Rambler, I can only drive one thing at a time, and it's kind of costly being responsible for 2 large engines, so my next RV will be a trailer I can tow with the van. Can't afford it yet. Saving up. Beginning to look and think and dream, though. It will be either an existing travel trailer toy hauler, or a cargo trailer I convert into an RV myself. Anyway, I stopped off at an RV dealership on the way down here, and if I'd had the money I would have bought this one. This was a travel trailer toy hauler with an enclosed Vee nose. The kitchen and bathroom were up front in the Vee, which made for a very nice arrangement and lots of room in back where there were 2 beds that went up out of the way when not in use. I'd have removed the couches and put cabinets for the music and crafts supplies. Notice all the counter space. And the cabinets and drawers are all storage space, not blocked by stupid arrangements of plumbing pipes and what-not.